Hi All,
I’ve been building a multi touch table the last few months and the project is almost done!
Here are some pics of the table in an early state.

I’ve been experimenting with different compliant surfaces. In the photo you see from left to right:
Grey rubberish rear projection screen (also good for FTIR detecting, only bit expensive 450E for 1,3* 1m), silicone rubber (Ugly projection but for a much cheeper price 65E M2)and for covering the silicone some drafting paper. Well judge for yourself, I’ve chosen for the most expensive route but that is because I prefer the image quality and tactile feeling is also much better.

I hope to post some videos within the next two or three weeks (still have to wait for the projection screen).
The table will work as a tool to support for creative design sessions during idea generation session of conceptual design (like brainstorming). This is my graduation project for my study (Design for Interaction in Delft).

Keep you updated
Gr Arjen

(update 24-07-07)
lets move this video up to reduce rsi caused by scrolling

nice!

i actually had the exact same idea for brainstorming!

http://nuigroup.com/forums/viewthread/213/
(the last post)

Arjen, what kind of projection material is it?

I’m not completly sure about the brandname of the screen’s material. I made contact with the AV company who delivers all presentation systems at our university. I asked for Rosco grey projection screen and they send me a sample of this material. I don’t know if Rosco is also a rubberlike material, but the sample I have here is some sort of grey rubber.

I believe the screen is on this page:
http://www.bis.nl/avproducts/index.php?menuid=2154&cat=11050421&mode=products

(probably the Macam Impact) Their website is only in Dutch but I’m sure you can get English support when you contact them.

The FTIR properties if the screen could be better. I had better results with a sort of latex rubber but its projection quality is terrible (even worse than the silicone tracingpaper combination from the picture above). I’m going to use a silicone lubrication spray as an intermediant between the projection screen and the acrylic. With the small sample I have, this worked beautifully, only its very tricky to apply just enough of the spray since too much will set of permanent FTIR.

I wish I could offer you some better help.

Gr Arjen

Prommised to keep you updated…
My project almost runs to its end and the table is up and running.
I have made a small movie to illustrate the basic interactions with my table, which I’ve called Palette.
I hope you enjoy the video…

I put it on my personal website (A you-tube version is comming up):

http://www.arjenklinkenberg.nl/palette.mov

Gr Arjen

Hey Arjen,

I really love your multitouch display. I watched about half of the video (it lows slowly on my connection) and it looks great.

Are you still using Mac OS X? If so, what software are you using?

Thanks!

Arjen - I also liked your software.

I’d really like to see more multitouch apps released into the community.  Interested in sharing? =)

hmm arjen, somehow that video link isnt working anymore ;(

Sorry, fooled around there…
But the video is back online and a little more “connection friendly”.
I’ve still built the software on OS-X (was the main reason for usinfg the fire-i cameras since they use firewire and mac is terrible with USB cams).
I keep my software with me but I encourage everyone to develop a good idea before building a screen yourself.
What’s the fun of using someonelse’s GUI if you can bult it yourself according to your own desires for the application.

Ok something went wrong there, let’s try again…

Very nice work !  Since you are on OS X, what are you using for blob tracking? Touchlib? Flash? Proprietary? Thanks.

Thanks for your nice comments,

I’ve used MAX/MSP for developing the touchtracking software. It’s a nice tool but in my case with two camera a lot of cpu power is consumed.
That’s why I’ve built two separate touchtracking patches, one for each camera, so I can benefit from the quad core property of the Mac I’ve used.
For future development I want to improve these patches since I only reach a maximum of 25 fps for both cameras. But for now and the rather rough application it works good enough.

Cool movie arjen looks great , this is pure FTIR? (Since I saw someone using a pencil...)

Very nice indeed!

maybe it’s an infrared-pen?

Did you use one mac for everything? I used max/msp just in the beginning but changed to touchlib because it was way to heavy… But you could use more macs (or pc’s) and use netsend to send over touchdata, this way you only have one doing the tracking thing and one doing the graphics (and latency is not really an issue with netsend, so might be nice?)

Never heard off MAX/MSP but the gui does looks similar to vvvv

Yeah i used one mac for everything, but made sub patches that are communicating through the netsend objects. so its very easy to make it process over multiple computers.
But maybe i give touchlib a try someday…

The pens I’ve used are simple IR pens, just a LED, risitor and a battery.
I used it for the sketching interaction, since people are not used that well to sketch with their fingers.